(3)

1

pared political tracts, mailed to individual voters whom they sup-
posed to be making up their minds on the question of the gold
standard.

(3) Another method of influencing voters is by intimidation intimidation,

sometimes nothing more than the disapproval of a man who votes unlike his neighbors, sometimes fierce and cruel personal abuse, sometimes threat of dismissal from employment. The Australian ballot has been favored by labor organizations because it enables the workman to escape from this form of oppression, since it is almost im

possible to find out how a man has voted unless he himself discloses it. (4) violence (4) Farther down still is the brutal violence at the polls, of which at the polls, there have been many examples in American history. The usual

form is for friends of one party to drive away the watchers of the other
party, or to threaten voters when they offer their ballots. With the
introduction of metropolitan police, since 1860, this violence has
become less common in large cities; and the Australian ballot laws,
which in many cases forbid the assemblage of persons about the

polls, take away the pretext of violence. ...
and (5) (5) Another too frequent method is the corruption of voters.
bribery,

Bribery is as old as votes, practiced

very frequent in the Greek and Roman either republics; for half a century, from 725 to 1775, the recognized covertly,

method of getting a government majority in the House of Commons;
frequently practiced in the colonies; and to this day one of the most
widespread and demoralizing influences. The most subtle form of
bribery is to pay a man on election day for peddling tickets, for getting
out voters, or for reporting the vo:e. ... Another method is to hire
men to stay away from the polls, one of the most dangerous of all

forms of bribery because it cannot be detected by any ballot device. or (6)

(6) Perhaps the baldest form is to pay money outright for votes: openly.

candidates for offices are often assessed thousands of dollars for
campaign funds; and cases have been known where they have gone
from polling-place to polling-place, actually giving out rolls of bills
to be distributed among the voters. .. This is a shameful spectacle;
and although in most communities only a small proportion of the
voters will sell their birthright, yet that small proportion may be just
enough to turn the scale.

It is needless to say that the bribed voter is no voter, that he

a

is simply a pawn in the hands of a man or the organization that pays Bribery

difficult him. In most states there are strict laws against either giving or

to prove. receiving bribes; but bribery is an offence extremely difficult to prove, because neither party desires that the transaction be made public. There have been cases in which, on the day of election, the party heelers on both sides have agreed to divide their campaign funds, and let the floaters cast their votes uninfluenced. Such conduct is of course held dishonorable by those sensitive people who furnished the money.

During the first forty years of our national life it was tacitly under- Rise of stood that subordinate executive officials should continue in office

the spoils

system. during good behavior, regardless of changes in the administration. After Jackson's first term, however, it became the custom for the incoming party to use offices to reward party supporters. Except where restricted by the merit system, each party has since that period secured control of government only to turn out numerous office-holders appointed by their opponents, and to install members of their own party. The evils of the spoils system at its height are described in the following extract from an address by Carl Schurz before the National Civil Service Reform League in 1894:

Looking at the financial side of the matter alone — it is certainly Evils of bad enough; it is indeed almost incomprehensible how the spoils the spoils

system on system would be permitted through scores of years to vitiate our the financial business methods, ... breeding extravagant and plundering prac

side. tices in all departments, costing our people in the course of time untold hundreds of millions of money, and making our government one of the most wasteful in the world. All this, I say, is bad enough. . .

But the spoils system has inflicted upon the American people Other evils: injuries far greater than these.

The spoils system, that practice which turns public offices, high and low, from public trusts into objects of prey and booty for the

The spoils victorious party, may without extravagance of language be called system one

one of the greatest criminals in our history, if not the greatest. In of the most evil influ- the whole catalogue of our ills there is none more dangerous to the ences in

vitality of our free institutions. American life. It perverts It tends to divert our whole political life from its rue aims. It political life. teaches men to seek something else in politics than the public good.

It puts mercenary selfishness as the motive power for political action in the place of public spirit, and organizes that selfishness into a

dominant political force. It debases It attracts to active party politics the worst elements of our popthe party.

ulation, and with them crowds out the best. It transforms political parties from associations of patriotic citizens, formed to serve a public cause, into bands of mercenaries using a cause to serve them. It perverts party contests from contentions of opinion into scrambles for plunder. By stimulating the mercenary spirit it promotes the

corrupt use of money in party contests and in elections. It creates It takes the leadership of political organizations out of the hands the boss

of men fit to be leaders of opinion and workers for high aims, and and the machine. turns it over to the organizers and leaders of bands of political ma

rauders. It creates the boss and the machine, putting the boss into the place of the statesman, and the despotism of the machine

in the place of an organized public opinion. It makes It converts the public office-holder, who should be the servant of the officeholder a

the people, into the servant of a party or of an influential politician, party slave.

extorting from him time and work which should belong to the public, and money which he receives from the public for public service. It corrupts his sense of duty by making him understand that his obligation to his party or his political patron is equal if not superior to his obligation to the public interest, and that his continuance in office does not depend on his fidelity to duty. It debauches his honesty by seducing him to use the opportunities of his office to indemnify

himself for the burdens forced upon him as a party slave. ... It usurps

It falsifies our constitutional system. It leads to the usurpation, the consti

in a large measure, of the executive power of appointment by members tutional appointing of the legislative branch. . . It subjects those who exercise the

appointing power, from the President of the United States down, to the intrusion of hordes of office hunters and their patrons, who

power.

rob them of the time and strength they should devote to the public interest. .

It keeps in high political places, to the exclusion of better men, It substipersons whose only ability consists in holding a personal following tutes the

politician by adroit manipulation of the patronage. It has thus sadly lowered for the the standard of statesmanship in public position, compared with statesman. the high order of ability displayed in all other walks of life.

It does more than anything else to turn our large municipalities It throws into sinks of corruption, to render Tammany Halls possible, and to

the practic make of the police force here and there a protector of crime and a cability of terror to those whose safety it is to guard. It exposes us, by the scan

democratic

institutions. dalous spectacle of its periodical spoils carnivals, to the ridicule and contempt of civilized mankind, promoting among our own people the growth of serious doubts as to the practicability of democratic institutions on a great scale. . .

doubt upon

202. The Civil Service Act of 1883 1 The evils which Mr. Schurz outlined in 1894 have since been re- In 1883, duced by state and Federal legislation. A pioneer law was the Civil Congress

passed a Service Act passed by Congress as early as 1883, for the purpose of Civil removing from partisan control a large number of routine and sub- Service Act. ordinate offices in the national administration. The more important clauses of this act are as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That the President is authorized to appoint, by and with the ad- A Civil vice and consent of the Senate, three persons, not more than two of Service

Commission whom shall be adherents of the same party, as Civil Service Com- created. missioners, and said three Commissioners shall constitute the United States Civil Service Commission. Said Commissioners shall hold no other official place under the United States. The President may remove any Commissioner; and any vacancy in the position of Commissioner, shall be so filled by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, as to conform to said conditions for the first selection of Commissioners.

Duty of the
Commission.

Eight
fundamental
rules
laid down.

SEC. 2. That it shall be the duty of said Commissioners:

First. To aid the President, as he may request, in preparing suitable rules for carrying this act into effect, and when said rules shall have been promulgated it shall be the duty of all officers of the United States in the departments and offices to which any such rules may relate to aid, in all proper ways, in carrying said rules, and any modifications thereof, into effect.

Second. And, among other things, said rules shall provide and declare, as nearly as the conditions of good administration will warrant, as follows:

(a) For open, competitive examinations for testing the fitness oî applicants for the public service now classified or to be classified hereunder. Such examinations shall be practical in their character, and so far as may be shall relate to those matters which will fairly test the relative capacity and fitness of the persons examined to discharge the duties of the service into which they seek to be appointed.

(6) That all the offices, places, and employments so arranged or to be arranged in classes shall be filled by selections according to grade from among those graded highest as the results of such competitive examinations.

(C) Appointments to the public service aforesaid in the departments at Washington shall be apportioned among the several states and territories and the District of Columbia upon the basis of population as ascertained at the last preceding census. Every application for an examination shall contain, among other things, a statement, under oath, setting forth his or her actual bona fide residence at the time of making the application, as well as how long he or she has been a resident of such place.

(d) That there shall be a period of probation before any absolute appointment or employment aforesaid.

(e) That no person in the public service is for that reason under any obligations to contribute to any political fund, or to render any political service, and that he will not be removed or otherwise prejudiced for refusing to do so.

(f) That no person in said service has any right to use his official authority or influence to coerce the political action of any person or body.

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